So. Today I shopped at a “Pre-sale”. Looking around my town, there seemed to be a lot of these about. Pre-what was not exactly explained. Pre-Christmas? In which case, isn’t that a tautology? Isn’t the run up to Christmas all just one big pre-Christmas sale of mega proportions? Don’t the retail (and Amazon) outlets write to Santa with wishes for good sales pre-Christmas? I know I’m being literal but it all felt rather desperate. When you have to discount 30% a week before Christmas that, it seems, is a “pre-sale”. Alternatively, it’s the pre-post-Christmas sale pre-sale. Got that?
Anyway. I, like many of us at this time of year, when caught up in the whirling dervish of retail-mania that is a pre-sale, am always keen to get a bargain. So a cardie or two was bought. Which, hopefully, I’ll wear a lot because it’s a lovely cardie (or two). But a new report from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, a leading proponent of the circular economy suggests we often don’t get as much wear out of things as we could, and this is not great for our planet. The report has found:
- the equivalent of one garbage truck of textiles is burned or dumped into a landfill every second
- about $500 billion is lost annually due to clothing that’s barely used and not recycled back into the system
- clothes release half a million ton of micro-fibres into our water sources each year
- the average number of times a garment is worn before being discarded or reused has decreased 36 percent relative to 15 years ago
- globally, we waste $460 billion each year getting rid of clothes that still have life left in them
- less than 1% of material used to manufacture clothing is recycled into new clothing which represents a loss of over $100 billion in materials each year.
- the industry mostly uses non-renewable resources which puts pressure on available resources and results in mass pollution
- the report argues that that, if left unchecked, the clothing industry will use up to a quarter of the world’s carbon budget by 2050
Makes me think about those cardies differently.
A key tenet of circularity is collaboration. My sister, who lives in South Africa, has “swap parties”. She co-ordinates a social gathering of friends where guests bring along all the things they don’t want in their wardrobes, and then swap them for what they like from other attendees’ wardrobes. It’s a fun gathering, wine and food is consumed, if you’re lucky you find something else you like (most do) and the rest is donated to charity. It’s simple, and effective. But it requires a willingness to participate and someone to make it happen (my sister, in this case). We can talk about the schade of not recycling, or consumerism, as much as we like. But without a willingness to attend the party, some “what’s in it for me” factor, and a coordinator, these things just won’t happen. As the report finds,
“Moving towards a circular economy goes far beyond traditional measures to reduce the negative impacts of the current linear system. It entails shifting to an entirely new system, and cannot be achieved merely through incremental improvements.”
The report has identified a number of characteristics that would support the kind of system shifts required to bring about a truly circular economy :
- Alignment on the case for change
- A positive vision for a new system
- Broad stakeholder buy-in and time-bound commitments to a vision-led transformation
- Demonstration that the vision is possible, with large-scale, pre-competitive, cross value-chain collaboration
- Unprecedented levels of collaboration and alignment in areas of action
Wow. Tall order.
I feel, reading this list, that getting the actors all co-ordinated and acting in concert towards these ambitions is going to be a challenge. Retailers are under threat as never before and this kind of commitment is going to eat into profits. At a time when we have a “pre-sale” as a legitimate (ie cardboard cutouts in the windows advertising this word) event in the retail calendar, I am afraid I presently have my doubts about the likelihood of the points above happening easily.
I hope I am wrong.
I will, however, be wearing my cardie until it has holes in it. Not much, I know, but one has to start somewhere.